Cacoucia chinensis A. Jussieu ex Candolle (Prodr. 3: 22. 1828) was said to have originated in China. The application of this name is unclear. The fruit was described as 5-angled.

Combretum chinense Roxburgh ex G. Don (Trans. Linn. Soc. London 15: 432. 1827) was said by its author to have originated from China. It was treated by Exell (in Steenis, Fl. Males., ser. 1, 4: 540. 1954), who apparently did not see the type, as a name of uncertain application. Nanakorn (Thai Forest Bull. 16: 171-175. 1986) designated Roxburgh s.n. in Herb. Lambert (G) as the lectotype and, having examined that specimen, accepted the name C. chinense for a species distributed from India to Indochina and Indonesia (but not in China) and similar morphologically to C. yunnanense (C. griffithii var. yunnanense in the present treatment).

About 250 species: mostly in tropical and S Africa, also in tropics of America and Asia, and Madagascar; eight species (one endemic) in China.